S 535 
.C2 ri5 
Copy 1 



CHILDREN (?/THE LAND 

The Story of the Macdonald 
Movement in Canada 



By 



HERBERT FRANCIS SHERWOOD 



Reprinted by permission from 

The Outlook 

New York, April 23, 1910 



CHILDREN «/ THE LAND 

The Story ot the Macdonald 
Mo\ ement in Canada 



HERBKRT FRANCIS SHl.RWOOn 



Reprinted b\" perniis>ioii trum 

The Outlook 

N\nv ^'nrk, April 2 :, , Hjlo 



ClllLDRKN OK TMK LAM) 

Tlic Stnrv of the Macdon.ilJ 
Mu\cnK'iit in Canada 







CHILDREN OF THE LAND 

THE STORY OF THE MACDONALD 
MOVEME"NT IN CANADA 



BY HERBER.T FRANCIS SHERWOOD 



AMONG the ISC' who. 
more than a cen- 
tury ago, received 
an allotment of land in 
Prince Edward Island was 
a Scotchman who had been 
an officer in the British 
army. He possessed all 
the ginger and independ- 
ence of spirit of the Scotch 
Highlander, and was in no 
fear of the constituted au- 
thorities when they did not 
agree with his construction sir uiiium 
of things. When he spoke, it was as it 
he were upon the housetops. He cared 
not who knew his views. 

On one occasion he was very outspoken 
regarding the behavior of the legislators 
of the island. It came to their ears, and 
to them it looked very much like con- 
tempt of authority as represented by 
thenis'elves. Thereupon they sent their 
clerk to summon this audacious citizen to 
appear before them and answer to the 
charge. When the clerk, fully armed 
with the majesty of authority, ap]jeared 
upon the farmstead of the Scotchman, 
the latter called forth his muscular farm- 
hands and had the clerk locked in the 
stable on the charge of trespassing on a 
freeman's property. This action scared 
the poor clerk, and when he was finally 
released he returned such a report to his 
official superiors as to cause them form- 
ally and solemnly to resolve — as they 




put it — not to further the 
desires ot this contumacious 
man for self-advertisement 
by paying any more atten- 
tion to him. 

This independent-spirited 
Scotchman was a grand- 
father of Sir \\'illiani C. 
Macdonald, the tobacco 
manufacturer of Montreal, 
who has .given more than 
eight millions of dollars for 
the advancement of educa- 
iMA( DONALD tion in Canada. He helps 
one to account for the vitality, the energy, 
the persistence, which his bacheloi grand- 
son has exhibited in his career, and for the 
fact that the latter gives one the impres- 
sion of being nearer threescore than iiis 
actual age of seventy-eight years. 

Sir William is one of two men <.)f 
Sc(.itch ancestry who are recognized from 
one end of the land of " Our Lady of the 
Snows '" to the other as among those who 
are leading Canada forward to hi.gher 
things. The other is James Wilson Robert- 
son, the former Principal of Macdonald 
College, for the construction and endow- 
ment of which Sir William gave approxi- 
mately five millions of dollars. The\' are 
not so well known on the southern side of 
the Canadian border as they ought to be. 
Sir William was born on Prince Edward 
Island. He left home at an early age 
to make his way in the world. For a time 
he was employed in New York, and then 

891 



892 



THE OUTLOOK 



he turned his face toward Montreal and 
became interested in the manufacture nf 
tohaccii. The conditions existing in the 
liiiled States at the time of the Civil War 
urealh la\nred his enterprise, and at that 
time he hud the fiiundation of his fortune. 

He is a man of simple tastes. ( )iie ot 
the thoroughfares in Montreal wliich ihe 
visitor is exiieeled to see is .Slierlirooke 
Street. If one could think of Montreal 
as one thinks of New \'ork, it would be 
styled the Fifth Avenue of Canada's chief 
cit)'. It is the street upon which front 
the homes of many of Montreal's fore- 
most citizens. The two streets also have 
another characteristic in common. The 
houses are not equally pretenti(.)us, the 
owners of .some caring less than do their 
neighbors about external appearances. 
The block of gray stone houses known 
as I'rince of Wales Terrace would be 
especially noticeable for its ]ilainness. 
C)ne of these has been the home of Sir 
William for forty-five years. 

The office where he has conducted his 
tobacco business for so many years that 
it has become one of the landmarks of 
the city is even more unpretentious and 
indicative of the tastes of its occupant. 
It contains no rich furnishings, no highly 
polished cherry tables and leather-uphol- 
stered armchairs and sofas. In one room 
the visitor sees two or three clerks. In 
Ihe next, at a modest desk, is seated a 
gray-bearded man in plain black. He 
rises, takes the hand of the visitor in both 
of his, and welcomes him with the formal 
courtesy of the old school tnodified and 
warmed by a smile that makes the visitor 
feel at home. 

The visitor is not long in the dark as 
to the secrets of Sir William's success in 
life, for a chat with him is quite apt to reveal 
that he is a believer in the gospel of work. 

An independent thinker and a lover of 
his countrw he long ago formulated a 
]jlan for its benefit and the method of 
carrxing it out. "Build up the country 
in its children " became his motto. As 
iiis wealth grew he sought means of ap- 
]i|\ing it. He observed that, among other 
things, Canada needed trained engdneers 
for its future development. He there- 
ii]ion provided McGill University w'ith a 
fully ec|uipped engineering building. Fol- 
lowing this came his gifts of a physics 



building and a chemistiy building, and an 
endowment for the maintenance of this 
w.n-k. 

'I'hese efforts at the realization of his 
idea were not to be the culmination. Can- 
ada is essentially an agricultural country. 
A large proportion of its people support 
themselves by the tillage of the soil and 
hv animal products. He discerned the 
fiuulameiital importance of a prosperous 
and contented rural population if the 
future of Canada should be what he wished 
for it. How to reach the children of the 
land was. i^erhaps, the most difficult of 
his problems. 

Often the problem and the man who 
promises a solution develop alongside 
each other. This happened in the case 
of the rural problem of Canada. Sir 
William is the largest stockholder in the 
great Bank of Montreal. He is also 
one of its directors. The policy of Cana- 
dian bank directors has long included the 
establishment of branch banks in prosper- 
ous farming communities for the purpose 
of receiving deposits. Sir William noticed 
that in the communities where creameries 
were located the deposits increased in a 
marked measure. He inquired further, 
and learned something of the methods 
employed in the operation of these cream- 
eries. What had been accomplished in 
I'rince Edward Island, his native place, 
especially attracted his attention. This 
was largely due to the work of one man. 
That man was James Wilson Robertson, 
Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairy- 
ing for the Dominion, another Scotchman. 
Twelve years ago the two began laboring 
together, the (.)ne furnishing the means, the 
other executing the idea. Sir William 
used to think of his share as " putting in 
a little yeast." If one may be permitted 
to carry the simile a little further, Dr. 
Robertson may be said to have co-oper- 
ated by kneading the dough and setting it 
in the oven. 

In this fashion began the execution of 
the agricultural phase of Sir William's idea 
for the improvement of Canadian life, 
which has been labeled the Macdonald 
Movement for the Improvement of Rural 
Conditions. 

To those unacquainted with Dr. Robert- 
son's origin the burr in his speech would 
betray it. He was bom fiftj'-two years 




nil s( HUOL GAKUEN 1!5 ll.NK HI' Tllli 
Kl\s OF THE MACDONALU MOVli.MENT 



CHILDREN OF THE LAND 



895 



ago on a farm at Dunlop, in the county of 
Ayr. In his eighteenth }-ear his father 
migrated with his family to a farm in the 
neighborhood of London, Ontario. The 
lean-faced youth was ambitious to become 
a physician, but fulfillment of his desire 
meant money for training. There was 
little available for such a puipose. His 
father was gaining his livelihood in part 
from the purchase of dairy products for 
export to (j-reat Britain. A knowledge of 
the dairy business, possibly, would assist 
in furnishing the means. Near IngersoU, 
Ontario, was a first-rate cheese factory 
where he could learn thoroughly how the 
best export cheese was made. He began 
with a wage of $13 a month. The work 
included tasks which could not have been 
altogether congenial. He was called 
upon to scrub the factory floor, no pleas- 
ant work for a man of the sensitive 
nature of X'liung Rubcrtsim. 

The young man's empl(.)yer became ill. 
Demonstrated capacity resulted in the se- 
lection of Robertson to manage the factory. 
His management was a success fr(.>m the 
start. Ability, conscience, and energy 
produced cheeses which won the respect of 
the critics. The output of the factoiy was 
soon recognized as among the best in the 
countiy. Time passed. His winters were 
spent in reading and the study of literary 
and scientific subjects. One winter he 
studied at Woodstock College. This was 
his only college training. In summer he 
was doing what he could to make cheese 
manufacturing a success, and. thinking 
large tilings and connecting their accom- 
plishment with small beginnings, he re- 
solved to do all that lay in his power to 
bring Canada's dair\- products to a higher 
level in quality. Then he went " north and 
west,'' the synonym in ( )ntario at that 
time for Horace (ireeley's advice to a 
young man, and took charge of a fact(3ry 
at Cotswold, Wellington County, for a 
joint stock company of farmers. In a 
few months he was supervising with suc- 
cess the operation of eight factories. 

Xot all of the farmers knew how to 
make the most of their herds, either in 
i^iuantity or quality of product. He ar- 
ranged to meet those who needed this 
kind of knowledge and offered sugges- 
tions as to feeding and caring for their 
animals. As he learned how to present 




UK. JAMES WILSON" ROUERTSON 

Formerly Commissioner f.f ARriculture and 

Dairyin- for llie D.. minion 

the fruits of his experience and thinking 
in an interesting and piractical w.iy the 
meetings grew in size and numbers and 
the C)ntario politicians began to observe 
the results. It was noted that he had 
something to say that bore fruitage. The 
politicians said, " We can do something 
for our farmers in this direction." This 
led to his connection with the noted Agri- 
cultural College at Guelph as Professor of 
Dairy Husbandry. He was now, at the 
age of twent\--eight ^•ears, fully entered 
upon the field of educational work, with 
little prospect that his youthful ambition 
to be a minister to human bodies would 
ever be fulfilled. 

I'or four years he served at Guelph so 
successfully that the latter half of his term 
of service foLuid him also serving Cornell 
as a non-resident lecturer. In this period 
he was not only lecturing and carrying on 
research work for the benefit of his lec- 
tures, but he was also exhibiting his 
capacity as a commercial agent and using 
his powers of observation abroad. He 
was sent to London to look after a Gov- 
ernment exhibit of cheese ant: butter. 
There he found that Canadian products 
were in competition with those of Den- 
mark and other near-by countries. " Why 
should not Canada have the IJritish 



896 



THE OUTLOOK 



trade ?" he said tn himself. And, liiidiiii;' 
that one of the holds which these f(jieij;n 
countries had upon British niarfcets was 
qualit)', he visited those countries and 
studied their methods of production. 
When he came Iwcl';, lie was ready to tell 
Ontario how to increase its sales in the 
mother country. It was by furnishinjj; 
what was desired of high qualil\'. Jn 
1890, at the age of thirty-three, he was 
appointed the first Commissioner ot 
Dairying for the Dominion, with head- 
quarters at Ottawa. 

I'aking pieces of metal and fashionir,g 
them into a successful machine is one 
thing. It is (|uite anotiier to mold an 
unorganized mass <)f human beings into 
an effective machine .__., 

for the accomplish- 
ment of better things, 
each unit, perforce, 
remaining independ- 
ent in volition. The 
new Commissioner 
possessed the large 
ness and clarity ol 
vision, the technical 
knowledge, the or- 
ganizing ability, the 
energ}', the enthusi- 
asm, and the capac- 
ity' for expression 
essential to the suc- 
cess of such a task. 
He sent out traveling 
dairies, distributed 
educational bulletins, 
and went around 
preaching the doctrines of better farming 
and better products in his plain, logical, 
phhy fashion. He taught that hay-sell- 
ing robbed the soil of its plant food at 
a rapid rate, and when hay was exported 
the Dominion was depriving itself of a 
portion of its wealth-producing energy. 
The hay from two hundred acres, he 
asserted, contained more of the elements 
of soil fertility than were carried away in 
ji6,0C)0,000 worth of butter. In the ex- 
port of cheese the same was true. He 
was teaching a people the value of con- 
servation of natural resources and ex- 
tending an industry which educates the 
mind and improves social conditions. 

There were whole provinces in which 
dairj'ing could be introduced to the ad- 




HOLSlrlNs ON I 
CESSFI L LKi \M 
CLITFI , IRINLL 



vantage of the inhabitants and the Do- 
minion. The words "paternalism" and 
" .Socialism " had no terrors for him, nor 
did they ha\e for the people of the dif- 
ferent provinces after experiencing his 
form of " paternalism." In 1892 the 
people of Prince Edward Island had lost 
their geiieral markets through the opera- 
tion of the McKinley Tariff Bill, and had 
become disheartened. The Federal Gov- 
ernment of the Dominion agreed to lend 
some mone)- for the develo]_iment of the 
dairy industry iir the island, and C<:>m- 
missioner Robertson took charge. He 
started co-operative cheese factories. He 
also undertook to find a market for the 
product. The milk producers were 
^ _ charged a percentage 

^"'" ' to cover the cost of 

operation. \Mthin 
li\e years dairying 
in the island had 
reached such propor- 
tions that it no long- 
er needed assistance 
and had recom- 
])ensed the Federal 
Covernment for all 
its effort. Where in 
1892 four feeble 
creameiies produced 
cheese valued at 
$8,448, in 1901 forty- 
seven creameries put 
out cheese and butter 
to the value of $566,- 
824. This product 
was of high grade. 
Robertson's work had developed winter 
butter-making as well as summer cheese- 
making. A people had been helped to 
help themselves, hope had been stimulated, 
and a door opened to prosperity. The local 
government now emplo}'s a traveling in- 
structor in cheese and butter making, who 
visits all the factories frequently so as to 
maintain and advance their standard of 
production. In 1895 Commissioner Robert- 
son began to help the Northwest Territo- 
ries in the same wa\-, practically all the 
creameries being in a bankrupt condition 
and the crops poor. People were trek- 
king from the Territory. The tide was 
turned, the people were lifted over their 
difficulties, and now they have prosperous 
diversified farming. 



iNE ^<t TKl SI L- 
EKIES, \1 ERNS 
EDU \KU isl AM 







~ff^-^X^^^ 



^->4^i^^:.f^^^^>%:^^^^^^^^^^'^%J^ 



illl-.lU'-KAl.slNl 



A LAH(,E SOritCE UF PKOFIT IX M.iVA bi 



The quality of the cheese and butter 
product of Canada was improved to such 
a degree within tlie decade and a half 
between 1890 and 1905, comprising the 
period of Dr. Robertson's incumbency of 
the commissionership, that the exports of 
these products rose from §9,700,000 to 
S3 1,500,000 a 3'ear. This was an in- 
crease from an average of S- to an aver- 
age of $5 for each man, woman, and child 
in Canada, the latter sum averaging mcjre 
than $10 for each person living on a farm. 
It is not often that a man's efforts can be 



so concretely measured. Looking into 
the background of this single accomplish- 
ment, one sees that it has a close connec- 
tion with the fruitage of life itself. With 
the means to provide them, doors to fresh 
contacts are opened and the desire is in- 
creased for higher culture as expressed in 
more comfortable and artistic surroimdings 
in the home and greater opportunities 
for obtaining education. 

Dr. Robertson is essentially a pioneer. 
Having planted the seed, demonstrated 
how t(.) make it fruitful, and won friends 



f^'^^iS^^ 



I 

'J 



(i 




-^»^i <sa,-»''''*i «*iSS»S»*S?*^A J 



"^«> 



THE COLONV PLAN OF RAISING FOWLS AT .MAt UONALU COl.LEOF 



898 



THE OUTLOOK 



for il, lie leaves the harvesting to others 
and presses into a fresh field. ( ine for- 
ward step each year is his aim. By 1895, 
when he was appoinled ( "i.nnmissioner of 
A,L;rieultLn-e, in addition to his tiffiee of 
Commissioner of Dairying, the Dominion 
had been lca\'encd rather thoroughly as 
to the advantage of dairying. There re- 
mained the markcling liid to be per- 
fected. The goods were not reaching 
the English market in good condition, and 
the price that their quality warranted, 
therefore, was not being obtained. Steps 
were taken to develop a chain of cold 
storage that should begin at the creamery 
and terminate only at the market (in the 
eastern .side of the .\llantic. 'i"he idea 
was approved by I'arliament, and once 
more " paternalism '' was permitted to per- 
form its work. 'IVi-day. assisted by the 
Dominion ( 'loxei'nment, the chain is com- 
plete. Il ser\es not onl_\- for butter, but 
for every other product that rec|uires 
refrigeration. The service extends from 
one end of the Dominion to the other, 
and is within reach i.if producers both 
great and small. 

The tale 'f his multiplied activities and 
accomplishments in the combined offices is 
a long one. Whatever things would work 
together to make farming more profitable 
through economical management and in 
improvement in quality of product, to that 
he turned his attention. Did he desire to 
assist in the development of a bacon in- 
dustry ? He experimented with different 
foods, and, sitring astride the animals, 
killed them with his own hand, in order 
to determine the effect upon them in rela- 
tive vitality by counting their dying gasps 
and feeling the force of the pulsing heart- 
beats in the struggle against death. What 
poultryman has not sighed for a large 
supply of eggs in the winter season, when 
the prices are high ? ]!y taking fowls 
back to the simple life of pure air, plain 
food, and plenty of exercise. Commis- 
sioner Robertson demonstrated how they 
could be made to lay abimdantly when tne 
temperature was fifteen degrees below 
zero. 

Having rounded out in a measure his 
scheme for improving agriculture as a 
profitable occupation for adults, he turned 
his attention to the future of ( 'anadian 
farming. At this point his planning 



began to parallel the idea of Sir William 
C. Macdonald. He, too, was thinking of 
Canada's future in its children. 
" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

'I'here are few thinking people in the 
United States who do not realize that 
there is great room for improvement in 
educalional facilities in the rural sections 
of the country, and also a demand for better 
etiuipijcd farmers. Canada's problem is 
the same as that of the United States. 

Lord Salisbury once said that the great 
problem, not only of England, but of all 
humanity, is to maintain the fertility of 
the soil by the activity iif plants and 
the activitv of bacteria. Tliree essentials 
for the progres.sive development of human 
life are: (1) food, (2) protection for the 
voung. and (3) continuation of the lessons 
of experience. The three fundamental 
occupations, therefore, in Di'. Koljertson's 
view of life, are farming, home-making, 
and teaching. Upon this " tiipod," as he 
calls it, he is building his scheme for rural 
improvement. Whether we like it rir not, 
it must be that some shall till the soil if 
the human race is to survive. How are 
the conditions to be amended ? I )r. Rob- 
ertson proposes two ways : 

(1) By practical illustrations of how the 
occupation in each locality may be made 
more attractive, profitable, and satisfying 
to those engaged in farming. 

(2) By such an adjustment of schools 
and of training that the children will be 
attracted to rural occupations and will be 
cjualified to be successful in them. 

This is his educational platform. Dr. 
Robertson is constructive. He always 
has an end in view. These two planks 
comprise the platform of the Macdonald 
IMovement, which he organized. 

Working in harmony with Sir William 
and Ixrcked by the fimds of this con- 
structive manufacturer. Dr. Ivobertson 
introduced the leaven of a system which 
correlates education with agriculture from 
the primary school in the country district 
to the college. The two mon have pro- 
vided a specimen of what they think the 
Dominion of Canada needs, in the hope 
that its value will be so clearly demon- 
strated that the people will carry it for- 
ward themselves. 'I'he gifts of Sir 
William are intended as leaven only. 




IIK.II DEVF.I.DP.MEXT IN I'EACIl Cl'LTUKE 



The philosophy and practice of this 
pair of men in their undertakings for 
" building' up the country in its children '' 
are illustrated in the metlntd which they 
took for teaching the lesson of cro]3 im- 
provement to Canadian farmers. In 
1899 Dr. Robertson wished to learn 
whether the countiT was ripe for the 
acceptance of the theory that it is worth 
while for a farmer to use the best seed, 
and whether the interest of children in 
agriculture could be stimulated. He took 
from his private purse the sum of $100 
and offered it in prizes to Canadian boys 
and girls who would send him the largest 
heads from the most vigorous plants of 
wheat and oats taken from their fathers' 
farms. The response was remarkable. 
The letters which Dr. Robertson received 
from the farmers and their boys and girls 
were so suggestive and encouraging that 
the following winter he said, in substance, 
to Sir William : 

" Here is a great chance to do some 
educational work in progressive agri- 
culture ; to do something interesting, 
something attractive, something definite, 
sometliing beneficial to the whole com- 
niunitv, something easy, and vet with 



plenty of difficulties. Farmers and their 
families may fail to appreciate the educa- 
tional advantages of a plan or scheme set 
out in a written statement, but here is 
something which would be so helpful and 
instructive to boys and girls that they 
would go on with it, and the habits of 
observation and thought and study would 
go on with them. I would like yiju to 
give me $10,0()0 for prizes to set and 
keep this thing going for three years." 

Sir William gave the money with a 
right good will. For the main compe- 
tition the competitors were required to 
pick each year by hand the largest heads 
from the most vigorous and productive 
plants in sufficient cjuantity to obtain seed 
from these heads to sow a quarter of an 
acre the following year. The careful 
records which were kept of the number 
of grains a hundred heads, and also of the 
weight, showed that in the three years 
the percentage of increase on the average 
for the Dominion for spiing wheat was 
18 per cent in the number of grains and 
28 per cent in the weight, while in the 
oats the figures were 19 and 27 respect- 
ively. I'hese were the results from sev- 
eral hundred seed grain plots operated by 



900 



THE OUTLOOK 



23 April 



boys and girls under eighteen years uf 
age. 

As niav be imagined, the cliildren were 
not the iinly "ncs who gained from this 
practical demonstration. Tiieir parents 
and neighbors learned the lesson also. 
This contest gave birth to the Canadian 
-Seed Growers' Association, organized for 
the purpose of improving the crops of 
Canada ; it is coextensive with the Do- 
minion. It was estimated in 1906 that 
the crops of Canada already had been 
increased in value to the extent of half a 
million dollars as a direct result of the 
competitions. Moreover, it had been 
demonstrated that children could be inter- 
ested in agriculture. 

Manual training, the vehicle by which 
agriculture and education were to be 
brought together, was the next step. Ar- 
guing that an examiile provided in a town 
is the must effective method of stimulating 
the officials of rural schools, Sir William, 
upon the advice of Dr. Robertson, h mnded 
thruughmit ( 'anada manual training c;jnters 
at twiniv-one places. These were attended 
b\' 7,(Hi() children and cost $3,600 a month 
fur teachers. At the end of three years 
the liical authorities were free to continue 
the schools or not, as they chose. The 
leaven performed its task. In every case 
the school was taken over and others 
added. In Nova Scotia more than a 
score of school centers of the Macdonald 
type have been built and are conducted 
by means of local funds. In Ontario the 
three Macdonald centers have grown t(.) 
more than twoscore. 

The next step was the introduction into 
the rural schools of manual training, iTKjd- 
ified for the ]ierformance of its new duty. 
In order to make manual training effective 
in the country, and of such a nature as 
to accomplish the desired results, it was 
essential that it have certain character- 
istics. It was desirable that nature study, 
elementary biology, and elementary agri- 
culture should become a part of the cur- 
riculum. The two leaveners now took 
two steps. They introduced the leaven 
of school gardens and the consolidation 
of rural schools. School gardens were 
attached to each of five schools in each of 
five provinces. A trained instructor was 
put in charge of each group of five schools, 
devoting one day a week to each school 



in his circuit, and giving instruction to the 
teachers as well as the children. The 
gardens have been a marked success, not 
only educationally as manual training, but 
agriculturally. Most useful lessons were 
learned of the advantages of using selected 
seed, of the methods of protecting crops 
from insects and fimgous diseases, and of 
the rotation of crops. At a school garden 
in Prince Edward Island the children 
reaped 32 per cent more wheat from a 
plot sown with selected seed than from 
a similar plot sown with unselected seed. 
In most of the gardens two plots side 
by side were planted with potatoes. The 
treatment of each plot was similar in every 
respect, except that the plants in one were 
spraved with Bordeaux mixture to prevent 
blight. In every case the yield of pota- 
toes , from the sprayed plot was larger 
than the other. ']"he increase was from 
41 to 111 iicr cent. liowcsville, ( intario, 
the iciUci' of the largest potato-producing 
section of eastern Canada, was put on 
anolhcr footing of ]3rofit by the work 
done at the Macdonald school garden at- 
tached to the school there. 

.\s remarkable as these results with 
crojis were the effects on the children 
themselves. In (!)ntario uniform exami- 
nations for entrance to the high schools 
are held in July. In 1906, in Carleton 
County, in schools without gardens 49 
per cent of the candidates passed, wlule 
of those w\ia came from the five schools 
to which were attached gardens 71 i^er 
cent were successful. Apparently the 
work with the hands in the garden in- 
creased the capacity for work with books. 

Sir William fotmded four consolidated 
schools, one in each of the provinces of 
(Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
and I'rince Edward Island. The school 
work was graded, provision was made for 
classes in manual training, household sci- 
ence, and nature study based on \\<irk in 
school gardens, and wagons were provided 
for the transportation of children. The cost 
of the schools for the three years was 
$180,000. This leaven also accomplished 
its mission. Local school boards are con- 
solidating the feeble country schools. In 
Nova Scotia alone there are more than 
twenty-two consoliciated schools in the 
room of fifty-three of the old type. Con- 
solidation in Canada, where it has been 



ISIIO 



CHILDREN OF THE LAND 



901 



tried, has raised the standard of rural 
education and increased the daily attend- 
ance from 50 to 100 per cent. 

These educational reforms created a 
demand for teachers trained in nature 
study, agriculture, manual training, and 
household science. In order to meet this 
demand, Sir William pro\'ided at the On- 
tario Agricultural College, at Guelph, two 
large buildings for the residence and 
training of teachers. This school also 
trained for the business of home-making 
in the countr)*, the college having already 
provided for agricultural education. 

The crown of all is Macdonald College, 
at Ste. Anne de Belle\'ue. The province 
of Quebec," unlike several of the other 
provinces, has no agricultural college sup- 
ported by public funds. Sir \^'illiam has 
supplied the deficiency with an institution 
which rounds out the plan of the Mac- 
donald Movement. Intended for train- 
ing in agriculture, home-making, and 
teaching, it is probably the best equipped 
and most advanced institution of its kind 
in the world. It stands for the advance- 
ment of education, the prosecution of 
research work, and the dissemination of 
knowledge, all with particular regard to 
the interests and needs of the population 
in rural districts. ' It is Sir William's 
greatest yeast-cake. It is the supreme 
illustration of Dr. Robert-srm 's methods 
of leavening. The mere fact of its exist- 
ence is an educational force, for it adver- 
tises the undetij'ing idea of the Macdon- 
ald Movement and sets people to thinking 
about it. ' 

Its value in this respect was not for- 
gotten when the site was selected. ' The 
college stands at one of the few points 
in Canada through which the two great 
'Janadian trunk railways pass. These 



mads cri)ss thrdugli the very center of the 
farm within a few yards of each other, 
and the buildings are visible to every 
transcontinental tra\eler. It is a display 
advertisement of the first rank. It does 
for Canadian rural education what the 
eleven-ton cheese exhibited at the Chicago 
P'xposition in 1893 by Dr. Robertson 
did for Canadian cheese. It sets people 
to talking about it. Relatively few farm- 
ers' children will have an opportunity to 
enter an agricultural college. The stimu- 
lation and technical knowledge must be 
brought to their door. The veiy fact that 
it was thought worth w^hilc to spend so 
much money in support of an idea indi- 
rectly serves as a stimulus to the adoption 
of the rural school system to meet the 
needs of the people it ser\-es. 

Who shall foretell the results of the 
efforts of the two Canadian leaveners ? 
The United States, as well as Canada, has 
an interest in them. Although Dr. Rob- 
ertson has given up the principalship of 
Macdonald College, he will continue the 
promotion in Canada of the application 
of the principles of rural education lying 
at the base of the Macdonald Movement. 
He intends shortly to begin a journey 
through various parts of FAirope, extend- 
ing it afterwards to Japan, Australasia, 
India, and South iVfrica, for the purpose 
of investigating rural conditions in the 
interest of Canada, and to present the 
educational ideas he has developed. It 
may be added that the United States, 
on his return, is likely to receive some 
of the benefit of his experience and 
study. 

" The kingdom of heaven is like unto 
leaven, which a woman took, and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was 
leavened." 



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